British ‘Filipino-at-heart’ Malcolm Conlan writes a lengthy open letter addressed to the militants who protested on the alleged lack of press freedom under the Duterte administration.
Several days ago, some student activist showed their support to Rappler CEO Maria Ressa who got detained for a cyber libel case. They even made a placard which includes a warrant against President Rodrigo Duterte.
“You are hereby commanded to arr*st the person of Rodrigo Roa Duterte who is charged with the crime of committing treason, attacks on press freedom, and other human rights violation and bring him before the People’s Court as soon as possible,” the placard reads.
The photo was reposted by Conlan who also criticized them from thinking that they’re representing the majority of the Filipinos.
According to him, the activists should also look at the problems being solved by the President including the people who are victimized by the shabu users.
He also said that press freedom still exists under the Duterte administration, saying that the media can still be critical with the current administration without facing any consequences.
Conlan pointed out that while the Duterte administration is doing everything to solve the problem, the current administration cannot evade having some casualties.
“Whoever the st*pid people are in the picture and their supporters.
Mga B*b*!!!
1. You and your cohorts seem to think you are representing ‘The Filipino people’. I’m confused, over 80% and more besides of the Filipino people (80 Million Filipino people, support the efforts of President Duterte and his administration in cleaning up the country and improving Filipinos lives.
2. Talking about ‘Human rights’ what about the human rights of victims of crime, families of those who were addicted to Shabu who had their lives destroyed by this nasty dr*g?
3. ‘Press Freedom’ President Duterte is Open to dialogue with critics, the MPC regularly question President Duterte and of course Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on all matters of government, whether positive or negative and none are silenced.
The reason why Pia Ranada and Rappler was banned from the press core was that Rappler sought to seek financial support from foreign investors, this is against the constitution as this means Rappler are not 100% Filipino owned.
The reason why Maria Ressa was also arrested stemmed from a complaint in 2012, by a private individual businessman who was libeled by her. I hope you appreciate, it’s his democratic right to seek justice from the courts, why is this anything to do with President Duterte or any kind of Press silencing? This businessman is fully entitled to seek justice.
3. To the ‘People’s court’ how dare you to accuse President Duterte of m*rder and treason!!!
President Rodrigo Duterte has given up so much to become a public servant. At his age, he should be enjoying a happy retirement and spending time with his family, children, and grandchildren.
Instead, he works night and day, 365 days a year for the betterment of the Filipino people. His work is not easy. He has to clear up the catastrophic mess made by previous administrations, underinvestment in infrastructure, a dr*gs pandemic, massive corruption, and rising poverty.
Sadly, there have been cases where innocent victims have lost their lives in the war on dr*gs, I accept that. Cases of mistaken identity, wayward police, rival gangs, corruption, and vigilantes.
This is regrettable, but sadly in any war, there will be innocent casualties. When mistakes are made, like in the tragic case of Kian De Los Santos, those responsible are prosecuted and imprisoned.
However, before President Duterte took office, there were over four million Filipinos addicted to illegal dr*gs. This meant people were not eating and children were going hungry and not even going to school as they were out begging whilst their parents forced them to beg to pay for their next hit of Shabu.
Filipinos now feel safer on the streets, crime is down by nearly 50% in many areas. President Duterte is a lawyer and as such is fully law abiding. He even instructs the PNP in allowing maximum tolerance, so that you and your friends are allowed to protest.
When you hold up bogus orders like this and in effect insult and undermine the democratically elected President of the Republic of the Philippines, please remember that under President Duterte, Filipinos lives have improved and therefore your protest is entirely irrelevant.
Thank you.”